Structure Fire - 09/12/10 - Orange, NJ

Shortly before 0900 hours on September 12th, 2010 Orange, NJ Firefighters were dispatched to 399 Lincoln Avenue for a report of a fire in an apartment building. Units arrived to find fire on the fifth floor of the five story building, and reports were coming from dispatch of occupants trapped. Striking the second alarm started the large amount of mutual aid resources need to control this incident.

The fire occurred in a 150 foot by 150 foot, five story; “H” shaped apartment building. Evacuation tones and air horns were sounded as the order was given for all companies to evacuate the building. The third and forth alarms were transmitted rapidly as fire conditions started to deteriorate. Mutual aid companies from Newark and Millburn went to the roof of the uninvolved portion of the building to trench the roof in attempt to stop the forward progress of the fire. The fire eventually jumped the trench cut.

The stubborn fire ultimately traveled throughout the fifth and portions of the structure’s forth floors. At one point eight pieces of aerial apparatus were attacking the fire. The large amounts of outside resources on the scene were coordinated through the efforts of the Essex County Office of Emergency Management’s Fire Coordinators. The origin of the blaze is under investigation by the Essex County Prosecutors Office Arson Squad.